DISABILITIES: March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month.

Disabled people are often overlooked for their accomplishments. The website themighty.com offers more information.

Walt Disney was believed to have dyslexia, as did John Lennon. Albert Einstein had traits of dyslexia, with known delayed speech, and was believed to be autistic.

Helen Keller, though known for being deaf and blind, was a pioneer in disability advocacy and one of the first people with significant, multifaceted disabilities to graduate from college. She helped found the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920.

Alexander Graham Bell was an advocate for the deaf, as his wife and mother were both deaf. His invention of the telephone led the way for the first hearing aid to be created.

“Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the longest-serving U.S. president, who was elected to office four times before a two-term limit was put in place. Roosevelt enacted the New Deal, which was the first series of public relief programs and regulations put forth to help the economy recover after the Great Depression.

“Roosevelt mainly relied on a wheelchair after surviving a bout of polio, something that he mostly hid from the American public.” While Roosevelt never spoke openly about why he tried to hide his condition, “him doing this could speak to the negative and ableist disability attitudes still present in society.”

“Tony Coelho was a politician who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and was the former chairman of the Epilepsy Foundation. Coelho, who has epilepsy, has been a lifelong advocate for disability rights. In fact, he was the primary sponsor of the Americans With Disabilities Act.”